During holiday seasons many homeowners place decorations on and around their houses. One popular way to decorate a house is to attach strings of decorative lights to the edge of the roof or eaves of the house. It has been known to attach decorative light strings by using staples or hooks which are attached to the eaves. This type of attachment creates holes in the wood when the staples or hooks are removed.
Another type of eaves hook involves a generally U-shaped clip which fits over the eaves. One example of such a clip is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,883,926 to Reynolds. This clip has a flat base containing a hole in which the socket of a decorative light is held. Two arms extend upward from opposite edges of the base and are directed inward toward one another. At the distal end of each arm there is a tab extending outward from the arm. The tabs, arms and base are preferably formed as a single flexible plastic piece, but could be made of metal. A similar Christmas light clip is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. Des. 306,553 to Ruppel. One disadvantage of this type structure is that the clip can easily be dislodged from the eaves to which it is attached. Another problem is that the shape and flexibility of the arms provide a limited range of widths of boards to which the clip can be attached without slipping or breaking. Clips designed for use on eaves having a width of ⅝ inch should not be used on a 2 inch width unless the height of the arms is relatively long rendering the clip unless on eaves having a height of an inch or less.
Protz, Jr. in U.S. Design Pat. Nos. 368,219 and 385,776 discloses U-shaped clips used to hold Christmas lights on gutters. These clips are similar to that disclosed by Reynolds, but have somewhat different shapes. The distal ends of these clips curve outward with a gradual curvature. Pan in U.S. Pat. No. 5,288,047 discloses yet another clip for holding decorative light bulbs. This clip has two oppositely disposed U-shaped clips in which the outer ends curve outwardly. The disadvantage of this type of clip again is that that the clips can hold onto a fairly narrow range of board or product widths.
The U-shaped clips disclosed by Reynolds and Protz, as well as similarly shaped clips, are typically made of plastic such as polycarbonate. When the arms of these clips are spread apart, stress on the material is concentrated along the joints between the arms and the base. Repeated opening and closing of the arms or opening the arms too wide will cause the clip to break or to weaken along these joints. Such weakening in a clear or translucent polycarbonate clip is often evidenced by a white stress mark.
Consequently, there is a need for a clip for holding decorative lights which will hold securely on eaves of a house and wherein the width of the eaves may range from ⅝ inch to over 2 inches, and the height of the eaves ranges from less than an inch to several inches. These clips should not break or weaken during normal and repeated use.